-: Now we're gonna combine all of the variables
that we've been talking about and start looking
at how those apply to programming volume
and frequency of all of those sets, all of those reps.
So, when we look at program design,
volume and frequency tend to be inverse
meaning that the higher you are in one,
the lower you are in the other.
And rarely will you ever actually progress
in both simultaneously.
Usually you will make a progression in one or the other.
And oftentimes within a program,
you will be progressing in volume
and then as you change programs,
you will alter that frequency.
You will change the training splint
that you happen to be using.
There are some situations where you may be manipulating both
and I like to do this a lot, especially with beginners
that need to start off at very high frequency
and very low volume.
As you progress through a program as volume goes up,
the frequency may come down to allow you
to recover from that higher volume
as you progress in that particular program,
that particular phase.
So but oftentimes you won't ever increase
in both simultaneously.
I'll only do one or the other,
and sometimes one will be going up
while the other one goes down
or one will be going up while the other is stagnant.
We tend evolve, adapt to volume faster than frequency,
and that's because the volume is basically affecting
the individual stimulus that we're getting in that workout.
And once we hit that threshold,
once we have adapted to that amount of volume,
likely we're gonna need a stronger stimulus
the following workout which means volume
likely has to go up or the quality
of the work has to go up.
The significance of the work has to go up.
Remember, volume can go up in terms of the stimulus
that, that a workout is having on me,
not only because sets or reps increase, but also because
my proficiency, the significance of those reps
or the quality of those reps and sets go up,
so if I get better at contracting a muscle,
and I do the exact same number of sets and reps next week,
well next week the stimulus is gonna be greater because
I'm gonna able, I'm gonna be able to get more
out of each rep.
So those contractions counts for more.
Those reps count for more, therefore the sets
count for more.
It's a larger stimulus in some cases just merely getting
better at a movement or contracting a muscle,
improving execution, coaching better,
listening to stability,
and you know, what your biofeedback is and being able to
optimize and exercise better.
All of those may simulate increased volume
as you're making progress, 'kay?
So you can be making progress in execution,
which could be increasing your stimulus, in a sense,
increasing volume within a program.
Okay, frequency, I would say is the most under used.
So it's extremely under used
because most people don't get the effect that they should
out of high frequency programming because the
program design is so low quality,
meaning that in order for them to get a stimulus
they're having to do way more volume
because their programs aren't designed specific enough
or well enough.
Either the exercises aren't optimal, the execution's
not optimal, the order, the, all the variables,
the tempo, they're not manipulating the resistance
profile and stuff, just whatever it is.
Exercise selection to execution and everything in between.
The program design and execution is just not
good enough to be able to get the job done
with a very low amount of volume, so the consequence is
volume has to be at this kind of higher level than
it should just because the program design isn't
quite as good as it should be.
So frequency is extremely valuable, but if you only have
a small number of sets to work with,
you only have a number of reps, you gotta make 'em count.
Once you can do that, this opens up the door for
so many other styles of programming in terms of being
able to use higher frequency training as a big
change in body comp stimulus,
a big change in your hypertrophy stimulus,
another way of getting neurological adaptations
like, basically it opens up like a whole new chapter
on ways that you can improve somebody's results faster.
You can only get so creative with the frequency though,
so that being said, even though like you get all the stuff,
I mean frequency is not, it's not, it's just simply that.
It's more often or less often.
Whereas volume we have a lot of things we can manipulate
volume a lot of different way.
It can be tissue specific.
We can have like high, higher volume days before longer
off periods, like say we're having two consecutive
off days instead of single.
There tends to be a little bit more creativity and a little,
you know, a little bit more individualization in terms
of going around the body with volume.
Whereas frequency because every workout is gonna have
a certain systemic effect in terms of metabolic
and neurological recovery needed, pretty much I can only
do so many things.
Like there's, you can only train so often before I start
not being able to adapt and recover fast enough,
and at the opposite spectrum if I don't train often enough,
I actually start to regress in some of these adaptations
before I stimulate them again, so there is this window
of frequency, especially specific to certain stimuluses,
where you have to kind of work within that range.